General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Stock Crosses Above Fifty Day Moving Average - Time to Sell?

Key Points

• General Mills shares moved above their 50-day moving average, trading as high as $36.58 and last at $35.89; the 200-day average was $37.46.
• Analyst sentiment is cautious: MarketBeat’s consensus rating is “Reduce”, with a $36.59 average price target. Ratings include four Buys, ten Holds and six Sells.
• The company beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, though revenue fell 2.8% year over year and EPS declined from $0.86 to $0.75. Its quarterly dividend of $0.61 equates to an annualized yield of about 6.8%.

Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) crossed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $35.08 and traded as high as $36.58. General Mills shares last traded at $35.8890, with a volume of 12,677,176 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIS has been the topic of several research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "underperform" rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded General Mills from a "sell (d)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on General Mills from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Finally, Evercore set a $38.00 target price on General Mills in a research note on Monday, September 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $36.59.

General Mills Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $19.19 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company's 50-day moving average is $35.08 and its 200-day moving average is $37.46.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 23rd. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. General Mills had a positive return on equity of 21.86% and a negative net margin of 4.89%. The company had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.86 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 13th were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 13th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.8%. General Mills's payout ratio is currently -146.99%.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,181,608,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in General Mills by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,672,503 shares of the company's stock worth $248,344,000 after purchasing an additional 143,265 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in General Mills by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,200,299 shares of the company's stock worth $156,335,000 after purchasing an additional 58,608 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in General Mills by 41.0% during the 2nd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,140,772 shares of the company's stock worth $144,099,000 after buying an additional 1,203,993 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in General Mills during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $129,298,000. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About General Mills

General Mills, Inc is a global food company that manufactures and markets branded consumer foods. Its portfolio includes cereal, snack foods, refrigerated and baking products, yogurt, soup, meals, and pet food. The company's brands include Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Nature Valley, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Yoplait, Old El Paso, Progresso, Annie's, Totino's, Häagen-Dazs, and Blue Buffalo.

General Mills sells products through grocery stores, mass merchandisers, convenience stores, e-commerce channels, restaurants, and other foodservice outlets.

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